1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a valve assembly for supplying a liquid from a container, the liquid being contained under pressurized conditions in the container. The invention also refers to a method for filling such container with liquid to be supplied from the container. More particularly, the invention refers to a valve assembly for a siphon bottle and the method is a continuous process for filling these siphon-containers which process, as compared to the conventional containers and filling methods, allows the container, before the filling steps, to be open, that is without the valve assembly fixed on a mouth of the container, so that the filling process may be easy to be carried out and the inner volume of container can be washed before filling the same with the liquid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known in the art to provide valve assemblies to supply gaseous liquids, bottled under pressure, such as in siphon bottles. All of them, however, consist of plastic or glass bottles including a valve head or assembly that is permanently fixed to the bottle and the assembly is not removed during the process of refilling the bottle.
These known plastic or glass siphon bottles are of the returning type, that is, from the consumer's home the bottles are returned to the bottling plant wherein the bottles are externally washed and taken by a refilling machine that takes the bottles, put them upside down and connect the valve assemblies to a refilling nozzle to refill the bottle with water under pressure to keep the liquid in a gaseous and pressurized condition during storage. Upon refilling, the valve means in the valve assembly yield upon the pressure of the injected liquid and open to allow the liquid to enter the siphon bottle and remain in the bottle under pressure until it is driven out by the user. As it is clear from the above description, however, the inner volume of the siphon bottles are not washed under the erroneous assumption that this is not necessary because the valve head or assembly prevent any particle or foreign matter from entering the bottle once the siphon bottle has been emptied and await for being returned to the bottling plant. However, many foreign matter, harmful and toxic substances, have been unfortunately found in the bottles returned to the bottling plant, perhaps due to inadvertent actions or intentionally, by competitors, for example.
Furthermore, the known valve head or assemblies are generally complex and heavy assemblies, also made from combined plastics and metals having many drawbacks such as little continuous leakage, bad functioning of the valve actuating levers, which, many times, causes part of the liquid to remain in the bottles without being entirely removed from the bottle, or causes the liquid to leak out of the bottle during storage in the bottling plant or, worst, in the consumer's home. Furthermore, the conventional valve heads or assemblies are very expensive at such an extent that the cost thereof in the total cost of the siphon bottle is very important and this caused, among other things, that the siphon bottles are of the returning type.
It would be therefore convenient to have a valve assembly by means of which a disposable, simple and cheap siphon bottle may be obtained, the valve assembly being simple, safe and reliable and, in the event the bottles are of the "to return" type, being suitable to carry out a novel procedure to refill siphon bottles wherein the bottles can be cleaned not only outside thereof but also in the inner volume of same. It is to be remarked that, with conventional valve assemblies, no inner washing of the bottles are carried out because it would be very complex and expensive to remove the valve assemblies from the bottles returned from the user's homes and the bottles are only washed in the outer surfaces thereof in the assumption that no dirt enters the inner volume of the volumes. The conventional filling machines take the siphons to refill the same through the siphon spouts with the valve assembly fixed in the container. If the washing of the inner volume would be desired to be carried out in the conventional filling plants it would be necessary to remove the valve assemblies from the containers, wash the interior of the containers and refit the valve assemblies to proceed with the refilling of the bottles.